SyntaxDSTDEVP(database,field,criteria)
Definition. This function calculates the standard deviation of a population based on the numbers in a column in a list or database that match the specified criteria.
Arguments
database (required) The cell range that makes up the list or database
field (optional) Indicates which column is used in the function
criteria (required) The cell range containing the field names and the filter criteria
Background. The only difference between DSTDEVP() and DSTDEV() is that the DSTDEVP() calculation is based on the entire population and is not an estimate of the population value based on a sample.
See Also
You will find more information about standard deviations in the description of STDEV.P() in Chapter 12 and in the description of the DSTDEV() function in this chapter.
Example. You are a wholesaler and need to analyze your sales orders. You have already calculated the standard deviation for the sales of a product based on a sample by using the DSTDEV() function. Now you want to calculate the standard deviation based on the entire population.
Calculate the standard deviation based on the population of sales orders for a particular product in a certain country (see Figure 13-23).
Note
The data to be evaluated includes the entire population. The two functions DSTDEV() and DSTDEVP() will return different results if applied to the same data, because the sample DSTDEV() function will make an adjustment to estimate the population value.
To evaluate your findings, it is helpful to calculate the mean (see Figure 13-24).
The calculation of the standard deviation based on the population and several criteria returns 289.32. This means that the sales of Longlife Tofu in the United States spread around the mean ($1,617.38) by $289.32.